The 9/11 documentary “ZERO” to be broadcast on Al Jazeera TV on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 in two parts and on Russian State TV on September 12, 2008 (“One”)
on Friday September 12th, 2008, from 9.25pm until 00.30am followed by a discussion with two US-journalists and two journalists from Russia. Estimated number of viewers: 20 million.

Berlin, September 6, 2008: 9/11 event in Germany supports demands for a new international
9/11 investigation. On September 11 the documentary “Zero” will be aired
on Russian State TV.…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, there is no
consensus outside the United States that Islamist militants from al Qaeda were
responsible, according to an international poll published Wednesday.

The survey of 16,063 people in 17 nations found majorities in only nine countries
believe al Qaeda was behind the attacks on New York and Washington that killed
about 3,000 people in 2001.…

Of the city’s festivals with a national focus, the Polish Film Festival in
America might be the most serious about cinema. Just look at the credits for
the 76 features, documentaries and shorts in this year’s online schedule. For
the cinephile, this 20-year-old event not only lists the director of each film,
but also names the screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, art director and composer.…

The United States gave Israel free reign Friday on whether to send troops into the Gaza Strip, insisting that the key to a ceasefire is an Israeli demand for Hamas to permanently halt rocket fire.

But the White House said it has asked Israel to try hard to avoid civilian casualties as reserves were called up for an expected ground incursion on top of a week of air strikes that has killed more than 400 Palestinians.…

It is becoming clear that the bailout measures of late 2008 may have consequences at least as grave for an open society as the response to 9/11 in 2001. Many members of Congress felt coerced into voting against their inclinations, and the normal procedures for orderly consideration of a bill were dispensed with.

The excuse for bypassing normal legislative procedures was the existence of an emergency.…

I’m posting Michael Heart‘s new video with a special dedication today, just from this mother in Kansas, for all the mothers (and others) in Gaza …

Why? Because yesterday “our” Senate unanimously affirmed, by cowardly “voice vote” (meaning there is no written record and we can’t know who represented humanity vs. who represented Israel), “Recognizing the right of Israel to defend itself against attacks from Gaza and reaffirming the United States’ strong support for Israel in its battle with Hamas, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

Originally published at AlterNet By Joshua Holland on February 3, 2009

May Day rioting and demonstration in Marseille. Workers of ArcelorMittal hold Bengal fires during the annual May Day demonstration in Marseille, France, 01 May 2009. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Explosive anger is spilling out onto the streets of Europe. The meltdown of the global economy is igniting massive social unrest in a region that has long been a symbol of political stability and social cohesion.

It’s not a new trend: A wave of upheaval is spreading from the poorer countries on the periphery of the global economy to the prosperous core.…

Originally published at TruthDig.com by Chris Hedges on February 2, 2009

The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability.…

President Barack Obama continued with his latest escalation of the war in Afghanistan
by announcing his plans to send an additional 4,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan
to train Afghan government puppet forces. He also announced plans to send hundreds
of diplomats and civilian officials to the country, in what Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton called an “integrated military-civilian strategy”.
Like his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama raised the specter of “terrorism”
to justify his actions.…

Intro comments from Reprehensor, of 911blogger.com: I met John Hankey at John Judge’s 2006 COPA conference in Dallas. I was at first skeptical of Hankey’s conclusions; that the Bush Crime Family is tied to not only the assassination of JFK, but that JFK Jr. was also assassinated, with George Walker Bush in Hankey’s sites as a suspect. After watching his presentation in Dallas, I was convinced that Hankey is a serious researcher, who raises some important issues.…

April 23, 2009Let Sibel Edmonds Speak
Sibel gave a 75-min interview to Electric Politics on April 10. You can listen to it here. Mizgin has an overview of the interview here.
A partial transcript follows:

Heroin, money-laundering and terrorism

Sibel Edmonds: First of all, it has been documented in the past several decades, the importance of narcotics in the Turkish economy, but also the role of Turkish MIT – that is Turkish Intelligence – and the military having an active role.…

In his remarkable speech at Cairo University on June 4, President Obama promised “a new beginning.” In the words of the Israeli commentator Uri Avnery, the speech offered “the map of a new world, a different world, whose values and laws he spelled out in simple and clear language — a mixture of idealism and practical politics, vision and pragmatism.”1

Much of what Obama had to say was new, and warmed the hearts of observers like myself, who had become increasingly concerned about the new president’s fidelity to the financial and military policies of the previous Bush-Cheney administration.…

” In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” Dwight David Eisenhower, “Military-Industrial Complex Speech,” 1961, 1

” My observation is that the impact of national elections on the business climate for SAIC has been minimal.

A funny thing has happened on Cindy Sheehan’s long road from Crawford, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard. Many of those who claim to lead the peace movement and who so volubly praised her actions in Crawford, TX, are not to be seen. Nor heard. The silence in fact is deafening, or as Cindy put it in an email to this writer, “crashingly deafening.” Where are the email appeals to join Cindy from The Nation or from AFSC or Peace Action or “Progressive” Democrats of America (PDA) or even Code Pink?…

Once upon a time, the CIA trained, financed and supported Osama bin Laden and his mujahidin networks in Afghanistan to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After the end of the Cold War, bin Laden turned against the West and we no longer had any use for him. His persistent terrorist attacks against us for more than a decade, culminating in 9/11, provoked our own response, in the form of the ‘War on Terror’.…